hat effect, though he values your opinion three
times as much as he values mine. Perhaps you came up to tell him again
that it was nasty?"

"I feel very unhappy about it. He is throwing himself away. Yes, I
should like to prevent it if I could!"

The father shook his head.

"If Lapham hasn't prevented it, I fancy it's too late. But there may
be some hopes of Lapham. As for Tom's throwing himself away, I don't
know. There's no question but he is one of the best fellows under the
sun. He's tremendously energetic, and he has plenty of the kind of
sense which we call horse; but he isn't brilliant. No, Tom is not
brilliant. I don't think he would get on in a profession, and he's
instinctively kept out of everything of the kind. But he has got to do
something. What shall he do? He says mineral paint, and really I don't
see why he shouldn't. If money is fairly and honestly earned, why
should we pretend to care what it comes out of, when we don't really
care? That superstition is exploded everywhere."

"Oh, it isn't the paint alone," said Mrs. Corey; and then she
perceptibly arrested herself, and made a diversion in continuing: "I
wish he had married some one."

"With money?" suggested her husband. "From time to time I have
attempted Tom's corruption from that side, but I suspect Tom has a
conscience against it, and I rather like him for it. I married for
love myself," said Corey, looking across the table at his wife.

She returned his look tolerantly, though she felt it right to say,
"What nonsense!"

"Besides," continued her husband, "if you come to money, there is the
paint princess. She will have plenty."

"Ah, that's the worst of it," sighed the mother. "I suppose I could
get on with the paint----"

"But not with the princess? I thought you said she was a very pretty,
well-behaved girl?"

"She is very pretty, and she is well-behaved; but there is nothing of
her. She is insipid; she is very insipid."

"But Tom seemed to like her flavour, such as it was?"

"How can I tell? We were under a terrible obligation to them, and I
naturally wished him to be polite to them. In fact, I asked him to be
so."

"And he was too polite."

"I can't say that he was. But there is no doubt that the child is
extremely pretty."

"Tom says there are two of them. Perhaps they will neutralise each
other."

"Yes, there is another daughter," assented Mrs. Corey. "I don't see
how you can joke about such things